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Mom Ticketed When Her Child Pees on Public Sidewalk

Melissa Willets

About the Author

Melissa Willets is a mom of three girls, one of whom is a newborn. She writes about pregnancy, parenting, home, health, and beauty. She loves running and drinking red wine - but never simultaneously.

About the Blog

WhatToExpect.com supports Word of Mom as a place to share stories and highlight the many perspectives and experiences of pregnancy and parenting. However, the opinions expressed in this section are those of individual writers and do not reflect the views of Heidi Murkoff of the What to Expect brand.

A mom, ticketed because her two-year-old son peed on a Philadelphia sidewalk, is fighting back. Caroline Robboy feels the $50 fine a police officer issued her after her toddler urinated in public is completely unjustified. But her story begs the question: is it okay for little kids to pee wherever they feel like it?

MSNBC reports on the story of Robboy, who was out shopping with her three children when her son, who she is in the midst of potty training, told her he needed to use the bathroom. This miffed mama claims that a store associate denied them entry to the restroom and that was when her son took matters into his own hands...literally.

Unfortunately, a nearby policeman didn't think the boy's momentary indiscretion was cute or funny. He ticketed the mom, saying he was simply protecting her kid from a possible peeping Tom. But the mom of the pants-dropping toddler plans to fight the fine, claiming that she doesn't want her children to think that cops are unfriendly.

Robboy's story is getting a lot of attention, with parents coming down on both sides of the issue. Some moms interviewed by MSNBC were horrified that this innocent mistake led to a ticket. Other parents say that teaching children proper potty habits is part of the training process and a street light isn't an appropriate place to pee.

Of course every mom who has gone through potty training with her child has been in a situation where a bathroom is not available at the worst possible moment. In fact, just last night my family was at a neighborhood picnic and my husband pointed out a mom who had taken her child just a few feet away from where people were eating to relieve himself on a plant. It seemed innocent enough...but could they not have gone just a little further away from the food?

I think parents of sons understand the plight of the mom ticketed for her toddler's public urination better than parents of daughters. As a mom of two girls, I've never had the luxury to do what Robboy did. In the same situation, I would have had to yank a Pull-up on my daughter, find a bathroom or deal with an accident.

Perhaps ticketing this mom is taking things a bit far, but we do have to have some standards of decency in our society. The bottom line is that the kid is two, so the fine does seem silly. If he's still peeing on the street when he's in second grade, we might have a problem.